The ‘It’s all about Marco’ meme of the Beltway media villagers

You may have noticed in recent days an "It's all about Marco" meme emerge from the Beltway media villagers. Apparently we are to believe that comprehensive immigration reform rests solely in the the hands of this freshman Tea Party prima donna, Sen. Marco "Big Gulp" Rubio (R-FL), who already harbors fantasies about running for president (even after his universally panned response to the State of The Union Address).

So where did this sudden "It's all about Marco" meme come from? I bet you can guess, but Ed Kilgore at the Political Animal blog explains in All About Marco:

One of today’s more interesting items of Beltway gabbery comes from deep within the relentlessly beating heart of Tiger Beat on the Potomac (as Charles Pierce has unforgettably dubbedPolitico). Yes, it’s an installment
of Mike Allen and Jim VanderHei’s ultra-insidery column “Behind the
Curtain,” and the subject du jour is Marco Rubio’s role in the
development of immigration legislation.

The point of the column is very easy to divine:

Immigration reform is alive and kicking because Sen. Marco
Rubio was there at conception. It will likely die if Rubio bolts in the
end.

The possibility that Rubio could walk away, more than any
other dynamic, is shaping the final details of new immigration laws,
participants tell us.

The confusing thing is this: the “It’s all About Marco” story-line is
one that is largely dictated by the Allen-VaneHei snail’s-eye POV, in
which discrete decisions by Beltway Elites—preferably a single Great Man
like the junior senator from Florida—determine absolutely everything.
But in this particular case, that could be more-or-less true. Rubio
stands astride the fault-line that separates non-anglo Swing Voters from
the GOP’s nativist conservative base. It is presumed in Republican
circles (though not with much evidence) that the dusky hordes of Latinos
like Marco a great deal. And Marco’s elevation, perhaps to the White
House, is a significant reason many “base” activists will grudgingly go
along with an immigration bill.

According to Allen/VandeHei, Rubio’s doing a careful balancing act
where he lends his Tea Party street cred to the congressional effort to
hammer out an agreement on comprehensive immigration reform, but then
periodically signals he’s unhappy with this or that feature of proposed
legislation, which lets The Folks know he’s as skeptical about “amnesty”
as they are, while reminding his Republican colleagues he’s holding the
whip hand. Most importantly, he must keep everyone in doubt, and
Allen/VandeHei are just the guys to promote that perception:

Three people who have discussed the matter with Rubio say
the Florida senator is more willing than people think to pull the plug
if it looks like conservative resistance is too strong. In particular,
Rubio’s inner circle is concerned about the high-profile roles of Sens.
John McCain and Lindsey Graham, both of whom are Republicans that many
conservatives distrust.

McCain and Graham need to be reminded, you see, that it’s all about Marco.

POLITICOTiger Beat on the Potomac is the worst thing to happen to political reporting since FAUX News Fraudcasting. Marco Rubio is a freshman senator back-bencher who is irrelevant in the world of the U.S. Senate, regardless of how much the Beltway media villagers who love to waste their days on horse race speculation about presidential elections try to prop up this Tea Party prima donna as a presidential contender and "the most intersting man in the world." He is neither.

I have said before my theory is that Sen. Rubio wanted on the "Gang og Eight" so that the GOP could have a Latino blow up the negotiations on comprehensive immigration reform. This way the GOP can say "See! A Latino is opposed to the legislation, not just us old white guys," as if using a token Cuban-American is going to insulate the lily white GOP from the electoral backlash of Latino voters nationwide. Good luck with that plan.

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